WORTH WATCHING

Watch: Shia LaBeouf's Short Film About A Critic - 'Howard Cantour'

"A critic is a warrior." This short is surprisingly on-point. Actor Shia LaBeouf has been experimenting in filmmaking and one of his latest creations is a short film titled HowardCantour.com (which played in Cannes) that is, interestingly enough, a brutally honest take-down of internet movie critics (like the one currently writing this post). Jim Gaffigan gives a perfect deadpan performance as movie critic "Howard Cantour", spending his time flirting with freelancer cutie Dakota, played by Portia Doubleday. The film actually says some great things about cinema, but also does a nice job making fun of the movie critic world. That said, it's actually quite well done without being too condescending and an enjoyable watch. Have fun.

Watch Shia LaBeouf's full short film HowardCantour.com, uploaded via Short of the Week's Vimeo:

Update: Video was locked as password protected after news started to break via BuzzFeed that LaBeouf apparently plagiarized the short from a comic written and drawn by Daniel Clowes. The original short is currently inaccessible. We're now waiting for any additional statements or news about the film's status.

This short was debuted by Short of the Week (@ShortoftheWeek). Synopsis from Vimeo: "This is the story of Howard Cantour (Jim Gaffigan). A warrior, a film critic. He lives his live vicariously through movies and in movies. But Howard is no sell out, he's says it like he sees it. This is a story of his life and struggle about reviewing his film hero's movie." HowardCantour.com, the full title of the film, is directed by Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook), produced by Jeff Balis & TJ Sakasegawa. In addition to Gaffigan and Doubleday, Thomas Lennon appears as does filmmaker Dito Montiel. The film played at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival in the Critics Week section, and also played the Palm Springs International & Aspen Shortsfests. Thoughts?